Why do Fools Fall in Love?
by Menolly Harper
Summary: Literally, when the chuunin sensei was floored after being hit in the face by a candy heart and love letter. That was when Iruka knew that he was in love. With someone else. Kakairu.


Disclaimer: Don't own it. Obviously.

**Pairing: **This is Kakashi x Iruka fanfiction. My my, yes, man on man action, yaoi, shonen-ai whatever you like to call it. The rating is T for now and may be changed later on, or I shall post my smutty parts elsewhere and provide a link or an e-mail so that everyone can enjoy it as much as I do.

So essentially, if you don't like Male/Male pairings, don't read, or do if you like, because it would give me great pleasure to know if you liked it and I turned you into a fan of the pairing. But alas, that usually doesn't happen. So if you don't like it. Don't tell me. Flames won't be tolerated.

**Why do Fools Fall in Love?**

_Chapter One: Why do they Fall in Love?_

"Baka!" The Chuunin berated himself once more as he numbly removed the stray shuriken from his bicep, cursing the day he decided it would be good to let his little hellion hold and throw sharp objects.

The child that had thrown and missed his target drastically, or perhaps aimed it near perfectly, looked down in somewhat sincere shame.

The tired school teacher sighed as he got the normal "I'm sorry sensei! It won't happen again…" from the child and every other child that he'd taught over the years.

Normally Iruka would giver the child detention to make them practice more often and learn their lesson.

But today…today was an indifferent one-armed shrug with a" Be sure it doesn't." and demonstration on how to throw properly day.

Today, Iruka was happy, sad, excited, depressed and downright confused.

Today, Umino Iruka-sensei was in love.

---

It had struck the teacher in the face about three weeks prior.

Literally, when the chuunin sensei was floored after being hit in the face by a candy heart and love letter from some pretty little kunoichi assistant teacher in the Academy.

That was when Iruka knew that he was in love.

With someone else.

Decidedly of the same gender.

Amazingly someone he realized he barely knew.

Someone incredibly close yet so very distant to him.

Someone…that was decidedly, amazingly, the laziest most perverted Jounin of them all.

Hatake Kakashi.

Sharingan Kakashi.

"Honestly, hot stupid could I be?" The brown-haired chuunin muttered to himself as he walked out of his apartment building the day after the face smashing incident that was Valentine's Day and a rabid kunoichi ready to jump his bones.

Did he mention the bruised face?

Because yes, he definitely had a bruised face.

"Maa…what happened Iruka? Did you walk into someone's fist?" A silver haired jounin slouched over to walk with the bruised teacher.

Crap.

Kakashi's eye curved happily as he smiled at the chuunin, meaning no ill will to the presumed taunt.

Double crap.

Iruka blushed, only slightly, and unconsciously lifted a hand to rub at his bruised face. Since the hit had been smack dab between the eyes he had two black ones. Not to mention the field day he was having with his sinus cavities.

Right bright little ray of sunshine he was…

"Iruka? Iruuuuukaaaa-kuuuun!"

Iruka was suddenly startled out of his little self inner monologue when a warm hand came down upon his shoulder and the other came to wave in front of his eyes.

And now we're up to Triple Crap.

The chuunin tried to shrug off the other man's hand as he used his own to bat away the one dangerously close to his face.

"I'm fine Kakashi-sensei, now could you please move? I need to get to the Academy." Iruka felt terribly foolish. Even more so when the only thing he could do was stare at Kakashi, blinking owlishly when the Jounin refused to move himself or his hand from Iruka's shoulder.

Irked by the sudden awkward silence between the two, Iruka spoke.

Or at least tried to.

"K-Kakashi? What…I mean…why? Uhh….I-late-…class…at academy…uh…well shit."

Kakashi suddenly jerked his hand back as if he had been burned. Hardly looking the chuunin in the eye the masked man mumbled a barely heard "Sorry." And poofed away.

Iruka, just standing there in shock cursed the horrible candy heart from yesterday because it had not knocked him into a coma…

_He hates me._

---

Thus we come back to my more current grievance.

Dismissing his class of trouble making kids, Iruka fretted half heartedly about his bleeding arm, enlisting one of the student teachers to pick up the rest of the shuriken and kunai. Warranting an unknown penalty if the teacher left before finishing his task of finding all the sharp and pointy objects that children are so fascinated with he left the Academy.

Iruka then decided to take a stroll to the hospital to have the more than just itching wound looked at.

Four stitches and two ointments later…

Iruka sighed as he walked out of the hospital an hour after arriving; now sporting a nicely bandaged arm.

Walking, walking, walking…

Straight into a much toned, very solid object.

Ah, a chest. A definitively _male_ chest.

"Good evening Iruka-sensei." Iruka looked up embarrassed to see a smiling jounin, at least an upwards curved eye to indicate a smile.

The shorter man blinked once before returning the smiling, albeit feeling more foolish that the taller silver-haired jounin. "Good evening to you as well Kakashi-sensei, I take it training for team seven is over with today?" Iruka shivered just a tad, it was still the first half of the second week of March after all.

The Academy sensei noticed a weird look in Kakashi's eye when he shivered and brushed it off as some sort of inner scathing remark about weaker chuunin ninjas.

To the chuunin's surprise, Kakashi motioned for him to start walking and fell in step beside him to start talking about the day's adventure of team seven and Kakashi's graying hair.

"Maa…They did a mission today finding some sort of stolen object that was actually just lost in the person house that had reported it. Makes my hair go gray just thinking about people's lack of observation-"

"Kakashi your hair _is already _gray." The school teacher pointed out with his brilliant observational skills.

The jounin actually stopped walking the path they were strolling down and looked at the chuunin as if he had gone blond.

"It is _not_ gray!"

Bewildered by the sudden lack of person walking next to him and the voice behind him, Iruka whirled around to gape at the man's rather redundant…and all around stupid claim.

"Ah…yes it _is_ Kakashi-sensei, have you seen it lately? Or I don't know, since you had hair at all?" Iruka raised an eyebrow at the jounin's craziness.

"It's _silver!_ Not dull _gray_!" Kakashi folded his arms across his chest with an indignant huff and turn of his head to stare at the ground to his right as if it were the most compelling thing in a fifty mile radius.

Just baffled by the gray-no-_silver_-haired man's behavior he decided for the low route of things.

"Either way gray or silver, it's still the hair color of an old man, but now you don't have to worry about it when you do get older!" Iruka slipped out a little too perky for comfort.

It was then Iruka knew that he said something direly unsettling to the Jounin.

Kakashi approached the younger man with an almost frantic look in his eye. If you call completely calm looking frantic that is.

"You…don't like it?" The older man questioned quietly.

Iruka blinked, "Don't like what?"

Kakashi let out a little sigh, "My hair! The color…you don't like it?"

The chuunin was now laughing on the inside at the mental image of a distraught Kakashi coming to him one morning for hair styles, colors and fashion tips. Oh what a twisted sense of humor the chuunin had…

"No I like it, I think it suits you." Iruka tried to give Kakashi a reassuring smile without blushing his freckles off. Score one for the dolphin!

The older man looked Iruka in the eyes…with his one eye for a few moments, trying to decipher if he was lying perhaps? Why would he lie about liking Kakashi's hair color? Hell he already lo-liked everything about the man already, why the hell would he lie about it!

Kakashi started to sigh in relief but tensed, strain etched across his visible eye, "Iruka-sensei…just how old do you think I am?" the jounin inquired seriously.

The brown-haired man blanched, "Ah…well let's see, I'm 25…so you must be what…30? 31?" He guessed cautiously, hoping that if he was wrong he wouldn't get yelled at too much.

Kakashi went into a decidedly mid-life crisis pose, in all of its mock hilarity. Iruka watched as the jounin reached to grasp his own silver hair with one hand and drop down to a crouch in the snow piled on the ground, idly drawing unknown patterns on it in his grief.

"Ehh…Kakashi-sensei…" The chuunin was now slightly disturbed, his infatuation for the jounin aside.

"No, call me Kakashi…Kakashi-kun, just not sensei! It makes me feel old!" The overdramatic man turned his head away from the confused chuunin, "Even though that's what you already think I am…"

"Kakashi-sen…Ah, Kakashi-san," A one-eyed glare was pointed at him, "Fine, Kakashi-_kun_, just how old are you then? Honestly you _will_ catch a cold if you stay in that snow whether you can perform over a thousand jutsus or not!" Iruka slipped into scolding sensei mode at last, and decidedly hauled the jounin up to his feet, trying his best to swipe off the melting snow from the jounin, completely not realizing that this was a grown man as well as the one he was in love with while he was patting snow off of as if he were one of his nine-year-old students.

"Ahh…." The jounin smiled under his mask at Iruka's automatic response of brushing the snow off of him, but blushed at the contact, "I'm only 26…one year your senior."

Iruka's head popped up so fast he nearly lost balance and managed to smack his head into Kakashi's chin.

There was a resounding "Owww…" from both parties.

Rubbing his sore skull, Iruka winced in pain from the impact, but instantly felt regret as he looked at Kakashi, who was rubbing his similarly sore chin.

"Kakashi-se-kun, my apartment is just around the corner, why don't we go there? I have some ointment for bruises that you can put on your chin…" With horror Iruka realized that he had just invited Kakashi over to his place, his _apartment_. But before the chuunin could take it back or say anything more Kakashi happily agreed to his invitation.

Iruka trudged on next to a perkier Kakashi, wondering if he could just die of a concussion right then and there from just the thought of the embarrassing things he might blurt out to the jounin in so little time.

Oh crap. Did he remember to clean his apartment!

---

Well there you are! The first chapter in this lovely little humor piece I wrote up today. All today! Really, I was amazed at myself.

Expect three other Kakairu stories in the near future. At least two of them (Both are one-shots) by August 25th. In time for the Iruka-sensei's Festival! On deviant art club Iruka-Fan.

Great stuff, you should check it out.

Alright, enough shameless plugging!

Please review! I really do appreciate it, I will reply to your comments and it does keep me writing!

Thanks for reading!

Menolly


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